CLASH OF DEVELOPMENT

PERSPECTIVES
PROF. ISIDRO APOLLO G. VALENSOY, JR.
Course Facilitator
 Introduction

• After various development models were introduced in the

Philippines, the marginalization of majority of Filipinos remains
even as many formerly developing countries have overtaken our
country which used to enjoy one of the highest growth rates in Asia.
•Why is this so?
•What alternative development model do you think
can appropriately address our problem here in the
Philippines?
 Introduction

•The Philippines is considered as the “NGO capital”

of Asia, if not of the world.
•During the administration of President Corazon C.
Aquino (1986-1992), the use of the term “NGO” was
expanded, one way or the other, with many groups
considered as clubs or traditional civic organizations
began to classifying themselves likewise as “NGO”.
 Introduction

• Similarly, some public officials also formed their

own NGOs named thereafter as government NGOs
or GO-NGOs (sometimes called GRINGOS).
•What impelled them to form their own NGOs?
•What role did ODAs, private church funders, &
multilateral finance agencies (IMF, WB, ADB)
play in the proliferation of these NGOs?
 Introduction

•Just the same, even if the respectable name of

“NGO” may have been used by some groups for
different reasons the number of real cause-oriented
NGOs in the Philippines that espouse people-centered
development, social reform, democratization, or
community rights is likewise increasing.
•What does this reflect about the capacity of the state
to provide basic social services?
 Introduction

•The active role played by an increasing number of NGOs in the Philippines

manifests a felt need toward addressing social, economic, as well as
political reforms in the country.
• More manifest, however, is the dismal performance – if not utter failure –
of government in bringing about a national environment that translates
widespread apathy to hope, hunger to a decent life, or social conflict to a
just and lasting peace.
•Such poor record by government is thus forcing a sizeable number of NGOs
to transcend from what used to be providing relief service or simple
livelihood alternatives to new programs involving the investigation of failed
policies and crafting alternative strategies and paradigms that challenge
state-sponsored development.
 Introduction

•Given such trend (…increasing size of

NGOs), has there been some sort of
paradigm collision between what NGOs
espouse and that of state-sponsored
development?
 The Philippine Context:

•Many are baffled by the fact that, despite the

introduction of various development paradigms
and economic strategies (with billions of dollars
of overseas funds to boot) over at least the past
80 years, the Philippines remains classified as
among countries showing poor development
indications in Asia and throughout the world.
 The Philippine Context:

•While the Philippines used to be second to Japan

in GDP terms 8 decades ago – with GDP per capita
the fastest growing in Southeast Asia - it is now in
the so-called basket case economies, i.e.
characterized by endemic poverty and chronic
unemployment, with many neighboring countries
already overtaking the former.
•What happened?
 Brief overview of the Philippines’ History and
Contemporary Situation
•The Philippines underwent 400 years of colonization - by
Spain (for nearly 350 years), by the United States (50 years)
and, for a brief period during World War II, by Japan.
•The post-WW2 period saw the country being tied to a neo-
colonial relationship with the U.S. which imposed onerous
treaties and agreements related to trade (Bell Trade Act),
the use of natural resources (Parity Rights), and military
facilities (1947-1992) - being restored reportedly under the
Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and other supporting
agreements.
 Brief overview of the Philippines’ History and
Contemporary Situation
•Meantime, social unrest and rebellions continued to rack the newly-
independent country (1946) starting with the resurgent Huk
movement that demanded land distribution followed by the
nationalist movement of the 1960s and armed struggles waged by
the Leftist New People’s Army (NPA) and, in Muslim Mindanao, the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and later, the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF).
•The turbulent years of the late 1960s-early 1970s provided the
pretext for President Ferdinand E. Marcos to declare martial law in
1972 with a dictatorship that, in February 1986, would be ousted in
a people power uprising.
 Brief overview of the Philippines’ History and
Contemporary Situation
•A second civilian uprising in 2001 also ended the
regime of Joseph E. Estrada over allegations of
plunder, corruption, and links to illegal syndicates.
•Another president, Gloria M. Arroyo (2001-2010) would
have suffered a similar fate had she not enjoyed
majority control of Congress thus pre-empting at least
four impeachment complaints on charges of electoral
fraud, corruption, and human rights violations.
 Brief overview of the Philippines’ History and
Contemporary Situation
•In short, for the past 60 years, the newly-independent and,
at other times, emerging democracy that is the Philippines
has undergone periods of social unrest and continuing
rebellions, economic crisis and political instabilities that saw
its political system swinging from constitutional democracy
cum presidential system to authoritarian rule and back to a
period of democratic restoration with sporadic stages of
coup d’etat attempts, calls for constitutional change, and
several campaigns for parliamentarianism or federalism.
 Brief overview of the Philippines’ History and
Contemporary Situation
•Through these years, as the Philippine government under
various presidencies maintained special relationship with
its former colonizer, the U.S., and close ties with Japan
and western Europe it became inevitable that whatever
post-independence development goals it promoted were
configured or inspired by American and western models.
These western models encompassed not only economic
programs involving investment, trade, and agriculture
but also key political institutions as well as education.